What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Splitter]

not an exact observation, so shouldn't be taken as an absolute certainty that brood rearing is on-going. Its taught buy some that pollen collection = brood rearing, and therefore there's a common comment from newer beekeepers that 'I must have a queen in the hive as they are bringing in pollen'. Actually if pollen is available it will be taken into the hive by foragers to be used for brood rearing and/or stored for future use in the event of a pollen dearth.

Well done Splitter! A nice early mated queen there. I really like seeing what they do with pollen when there is a queen cell in a colony but no queen and then later, when there is little if any open brood, and then what they get up to after (or even immediately before) the queen emerges and later starts laying. You've already been doing some of that observing which is fantastic. Great work.
What you might find is that the queen that you say is not mated may in fact be mated but not laying. What I find is that they can mate, still look unmated but then will start laying, sometimes an interminably long time after I think they should (and so much longer after an adjacent queen has), and upon oviposition they will fatten up and slow down. Anyhow, give her a good time to start, if it were me, I'd give her two more weeks at least, not one. Please report back!

Thank you for the feedback. I'll be sure to give her a fair chance. It's all fascinating stuff to me. So much to learn. Will certainly let you know how it turns out

 

[Antipodes]

Thank you for the feedback. I'll be sure to give her a fair chance. It's all fascinating stuff to me. So much to learn. Will certainly let you know how it turns out

Just out of interest, perhaps keep an eye on the quantity of pollen coming into the one on the left (for whatever time you will leave them), to see if there is any change, dramatic or otherwise.

 

[Antipodes]

Normally I don't like seeing ants around my hives, but yesterday they were sorting out a wax month larvae.
Made me look at them in a different way.

Excellent Paulypaul. I've never seen that and amazing to see them take on a live grub. I was reading a couple of things yesterday in the Australasian Beekeeping mag...in articles by the US legend Clarence Collison. One was to do with honeybee viruses in ants , some interesting research on that, and the other was how bees are attracted to salts. Then I noticed that the bees were collecting this which is a wax and washing soda dross mix , some of which ended up on a concrete block once I'd tipped out the vat. Here's the video I took.

 

[The Poot]

Excellent Paulypaul. I've never seen that and amazing to see them take on a live grub. I was reading a couple of things yesterday in the Australasian Beekeeping mag...in articles by the US legend Clarence Collison. One was to do with honeybee viruses in ants , some interesting research on that, and the other was how bees are attracted to salts. Then I noticed that the bees were collecting this which is a wax and washing soda dross mix , some of which ended up on a concrete block once I'd tipped out the vat. Here's the video I took.

Looks like they can’t get enough of it!

 

[Erichalfbee]

This bee, in the picture: chronic bee paralysis virus?

Quite possibly not. I’ve had CBPV three times. Hardly any black bees.
I do see worn out black bees and no sign of colony disease.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Took advantage of the calm still weather yesterday and vaped two colony’s after 4/5 days of doing the first - interesting though the one colony that had a few bees with dwv had only 20 mites drop after three days after vaping?? I’ll have to see what the mite drop is over the next few days after doing the second vape.

This spring is turning out to be a bit slow on the honey flow front , it’s still early yet though.

I also noticed an avenue of 20 or so lime trees about 1/4 of a mile away by the river which the bees could easily reach on bad weather day.

 

[Antipodes]

Took advantage of the calm still weather yesterday and vaped two colony’s after 4/5 days of doing the first - interesting though the one colony that had a few bees with dwv had only 20 mites drop after three days after vaping?? I’ll have to see what the mite drop is over the next few days after doing the second vape.

This spring is turning out to be a bit slow on the honey flow front , it’s still early yet though.

I also noticed an avenue of 20 or so lime trees about 1/4 of a mile away by the river which the bees could easily reach on bad weather day.

Hopefully you will all get a good May and June. With any luck, no June gap.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Hopefully you will all get a good May and June. With any luck, no June gap.

No two years the same hey antipodes the Hawthorne is out in places and I’ve never seen the apple trees flowering so well.
Hopefully as the spring isn’t that good so far summer flows will be better.

I have a new heather site on the black mountains this season like right on the side of them - and walking the mountain the other day the heather up there is better looking than the Shropshire hills

 

[plain_hunt]

I think my bees got it wrong! I went in yesterday as I knew I’d got a colony on the brink of swarming, and they had swarm cells in, so I split them. They usually wait until there’s going to be a warm and dry spell - but according to the forecast here it’s meant to be showers and cool for the next week.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I think my bees got it wrong! I went in yesterday as I knew I’d got a colony on the brink of swarming, and they had swarm cells in, so I split them. They usually wait until there’s going to be a warm and dry spell - but according to the forecast here it’s meant to be showers and cool for the next week.

They don’t wait for the weather!
a half hour slot of good weather and they will be gone you wouldn’t even notice.

 

[Erichalfbee]

interesting though the one colony that had a few bees with dwv had only 20 mites drop after three days after vaping??

Guess where the mites are?

 

[Antipodes]

have a new heather site on the black mountains

That's fabulous Curly. How exciting!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Guess where the mites are?

Yeap capped in the cells

 

[Nottmnewbee]

Decided to go in despite the cooler weather, moved a very productive Nuc into a full hive, with my first homemade underfloor entrance. They seem happy enough in there. Checked my other hives, my recently introduced F1 has disappeared and a large lovely looking (unexpected) queen is laying up my largest hive v well (has anyone ever had a queen lose its paint quite quickly) seems v quick to have a mated queen laying if this isn’t the one I introduced. I have a red dot queen in my other hive, there are some eggs but not many, I’ve fed them all hopefully she will pick up and start laying, anyone else have queens that make a slow start? My fourth and final colony are a new split with a new mated queen who has started laying and they seem to be doing well.

 

[Swarm]

Not a good day with the bees today, I think their patience with the weather has worn thin. I found and remarked the yellow queen. Every colony was horrendous.

 

[Garry R]

Not a good day with the bees today, I think their patience with the weather has worn thin. I found and remarked the yellow queen. Every colony was horrendous.

It's incredible how a flow can change behaviour. I'm talking about beekeepers as well as the bees!!!

 

[JamezF]

Collected the kit from my dead-out tree colony this afternoon. As I lifted the roof off its sides fell off. It all felt a bit Laurel and Hardy I'd used some fairly tired hive parts though as the site was right next to a road and clearly visible, so if it did go missing I wasn't going to lose much. That's another roof into the workshop for repair then, though I suspect the only thing worth saving might be the metal cover.

Inside I found a live mouse which presumably must have climbed the cavity of the tree to get to the top. It was sufficiently scared to go for a big dive off the floor from about four feet up to escape though.

James

 

[madasafish]

Cut grass round hives, then fed nucs..
In that order.
I do not tolerate bees which cannot stand petrol lawnmowers.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Took advantage of the calm still weather yesterday and vaped two colony’s after 4/5 days of doing the first - interesting though the one colony that had a few bees with dwv had only 20 mites drop after three days after vaping?? I’ll have to see what the mite drop is over the next few days after doing the second vape.

This spring is turning out to be a bit slow on the honey flow front , it’s still early yet though.

I also noticed an avenue of 20 or so lime trees about 1/4 of a mile away by the river which the bees could easily reach on bad weather day.

The honey flow in my village is non existent at the moment.
I’ve been feeding the nucs I’m about to sell and when I put them in their sale boxes I put thin slabs of fondant in the bottom of the boxes to keep them going until they are sold.

After I transferred the nucs I noticed an adjacent hive wasn’t flying…… unfortunately another starved colony even tho I put fondant on it last week

 

[Curly green finger's]

The honey flow in my village is non existent at the moment.
I’ve been feeding the nucs I’m about to sell and when I put them in their sale boxes I put thin slabs of fondant in the bottom of the boxes to keep them going until they are sold.
View attachment 39672
After I transferred the nucs I noticed an adjacent hive wasn’t flying…… unfortunately another starved colony even tho I put fondant on it last week

Sorry to hear that Neil all my nucs are ok for stores as most have heather stores from last year, im glad I moved most of them up to the heather even though some larger colony’s had nosema and perished.
We’re they a biggish nuc that have staved?

Allso your using parchment paper